The Ned M'Keown Stories eBook

“It’s known,
Every night at a certain hour one of the
witnesses—­an’
they’re all sogers, by the way—­must
come out
to look for the sign
that’s to come.”

“An’ what
is that, Barney?”

“It’s the fiery cross;
an’ when he sees one on aich of the four
mountains of the north, he’s to know that the
same sign’s abroad in all the other parts
of the kingdom. Beal Derg an’ his
men are then to waken up, an’ by their aid the
Valley of the Black Pig is to be set free forever.”

“An’ what
is the Black Pig, Barney?”

“The Prospitarian
church, that stretches from Enniskillen to
Darry, an’ back
again from Darry to Enniskillen.”

“Well, well, Barney,
but prophecy is a strange thing, to be
sure! Only think
of men livin’ a thousand years!”

“Every night one of Beal Derg’s
men must go to the mouth of the cave, which opens
of itself, an’ then look out for the sign
that’s expected. He walks up to the top
of the mountain, an’ turns to the four
corners of the heavens, to thry if he can see
it; an’ when he finds that he cannot, he goes
back to Beal Derg. who, afther the other touches him,
starts up and axis him, ‘Is the time come?’
He replies, ’No; the man is, but
the hour is not!’ an’ that instant
they’re both asleep again. Now, you
see, while the soger is on the mountain top,
the mouth of the cave is open, an’ any one
may go in that might happen to see it. One man
it appears did, an’ wishin’ to know
from curiosity whether the sogers were dead or
livin’, he touched one of them wid his hand,
who started up an’ axed him the same question,
’Is the time come?’ Very fortunately
he said, ‘No;’ an’ that minute the
soger was as sound in his trance as before.”

“An’, Barney,
what did the soger mane when he said. ’The
man
is, but the hour is
not?’”

“What did he mane? I’ll
tell you that. The man is Bonyparty, which
manes, when put into proper explanation, the
right side; that is, the true cause. Larned
men have found that out.”

That part of it where Ned M’Keown resided was
peculiarly beautiful and romantic. From the eminence
on which the house stood, a sweep of the most fertile
meadowland stretched away to the foot of a series of
intermingled hills and vales, which bounded this extensive
carpet towards the north. Through these meadows
ran a smooth river, called the Mullin-burn, which
wound its way through them with such tortuosity, that
it was proverbial in the neighborhood to say of any
man remarkable for dishonesty, “He’s as
crooked as the Mullin-burn,” an epithet which
was sometimes, although unjustly, jocularly applied
to Ned himself. This deep but narrow river had
its origin in the glens and ravines of a mountain
which bounded the vale in a south-eastern direction;
and after sudden and heavy rains it tumbled down with
such violence and impetuosity over the crags and rock-ranges
in its way, and accumulated so amazingly, that on
reaching the meadows it inundated their surface, carrying
away sheep, cows, and cocks of hay upon its yellow
flood. It also boiled and eddied, and roared
with a hoarse sugh, that was heard at a considerable
distance.